Using the Simile Timeline

Contents

The following information might be helpful for a visitor on how to use the Simile Timeline.

The Simile timeline portion of the timeline has two components:

an upper section showing months also called the timeline month band, and

a lower portion showing years, also called the timeline year band.

Note that in TNG V8, the timeline month band was shown below the timeline year band.

A small vertical strip in the center of the lower (years) section is lighter in color and represents the time spanned by the entire months section.

Navigation

The two sections are synchronized and move together. To navigate quickly through the timeline, click and hold in the years section and drag the chart left or right. For tighter fine control, do the same action in the months section. You can also use the keyboard to navigate. To do this, the cursor focus needs to be in the Simile timeline (a single click on the timeline will do this). The arrow keys will provide fine control while the 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys will quickly move through the timeline.

Features

Events on the timeline are differentiated using colored dots as follows:

Purple - major life events (birth, marriage, birth of children)

Green - custom life events (occupation, census, etc.)

Red - timeline events (Events added through the admin menu as global timeline events). Global timeline events that have both a beginning and an end date will be represented by a bar rather than a dot.

Clicking on an event will open a bubble that shows additional information about that particular event.

Below the Simile timeline is a simple timeline bar with lines, numbers representing the timeline events and years to give context. Below the simple timeline is a list of the global timeline events included in the timeline.

Toggle Lines

Clicking on "Toggle Lines" will remove the lines and leave the numbers and years. Clicking "Toggle Lines" again will restore the lines. Clicking on a year will center the Simile timeline around that year. Clicking on a number will move the page down to the corresponding global timeline event in the event list.

Add People

There are a couple of ways to add people to the Simile timeline. By clicking the "Add People" button, you can search for and add people to the Simile timeline. If you are viewing a timeline for one person, then navigate to another person and view their timeline, both people will appear in the timeline. This will continue as you view more people's timeline pages.

When more than one person appears on a timeline, a box below the word "Delete" will appear for each person other than the person whose timeline is being viewed. To remove people from a timeline, simply check the appropriate boxes and click the Refresh button.

When more than one person appears on the Simile timeline, only global timeline events and the timeline for the included people will appear. Life events such as marriages and children and custom events such as occupation, census, etc. will not appears.